The Church: Its Meaning - The Protector and Proclaimer for the Gospel of God, Part 2

This morning as we continue to look at the the meaning of the church along with its mission and ministry we have covered for you already Seven points they're on the screen behind me.

We are in point number Eight I believe yep eight That the church is the protector and proclaimer of the gospel of God when you proclaim the gospel biblically You will protect it boldly When you proclaim the gospel clearly You'll protect it courageously we live in a biblically illiterate time where most people have no understanding as to what the scriptures say or what they are about and unfortunately Unfortunately, there are many pastors in churches that have led to this biblical Illiteracy of people in the pew Number of years ago there was a book written called the purpose-driven Church after that came quickly the purpose-driven life written by Pastor Rick Warren down at Saddleback Church in Orange County He has a purpose statement about the purpose-driven Church And in that purpose statement he he states these words Find God and you will find yourself and you will find your purpose in life That's his thesis The Bible says when you find God you lose yourself You don't find yourself you lose yourself and he goes on in his Book to talk about the fact that it's not about you.

But then as he goes through the book The book is completely all about you and not about the Christ And so in his video series that he puts out that many churches have have adopted and some people even change their name to the purpose church or something thereof in the very first of his video series, he prays a prayer and This is his prayer He says dear God.

I want to know your purpose for my life I don't want to base the rest of my life on wrong things. I Want to take the first step in preparing for eternity by getting to know you Jesus Christ, I don't understand how but as much as I know how I want to open up my life to you make yourself real to me and Use this series in my life to help me know What you made me for?

Then he says this Now if you've just prayed that prayer For the very first time I Want to congratulate you You've just become a part of the family of God Now what aspect of that prayer?

tells me About the fact that I'm a sinner Or what aspect of that prayer tells me about the only way to heaven What is it about that prayer that talks to me about substitutionary atonement What is it about that prayer that talks to me about the certainty of judgment and the eternality of life in hell What is it about that prayer that tells me anything about who Jesus is and yet he says Congratulations, you're a part of the family of God So people watching this video series think that now because they said what he just spoke They are a part of the church they're a part of the family of God and The closest he gets in the purpose-driven life to a gospel presentation is on page 58 And on page 58 he says these words Real life begins by committing yourself completely to Jesus Christ.

Now, that is true That's very true But what he says in defining what it means to commit your life to Jesus Christ is another story Fred goes on and says this right now God is inviting you to live for his glory by fulfilling the purpose. He made you for All you need to do is receive and believe Will you accept God's offer? I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity Jesus I believe in you Jesus I receive you If you sincerely meant that prayer Congratulations.

Welcome to the family of God. You are now ready to discover and start living God's purpose for your life again There's nothing in the gospel presentation That it gives on page 58 that a Jehovah's Witness would not accept or a Mormon would not accept or a Catholic would not accept or maybe maybe even a Muslim would not accept You see that's the problem That's a huge problem why Because it it convinces people that somehow now they're Christians because they said a certain prayer That never defined the essentials of the gospel Nor told you about what it means to truly be saved from your sin and to receive the forgiveness of sins That that's a travesty He goes on to say in his book that he just wants to re-engineer the method of the message He totally obliterates the message in his book and Yet he has a church filled with thousands of people that come every week thinking That they're saved and on their way to heaven simply because They have found out that God has a purpose for their life and now they want to be a part of fulfilling that purpose My friends the church is the protector and the proclaimer of the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord And if we don't do that Then we will convince a whole slew of people That they're on their way to heaven when in reality They have no idea what it means to be saved from the kingdom of darkness and Transferred into the kingdom of God's dear Son We have a huge responsibility So we started last week by telling you that when you present the gospel you need to remember certain things We gave them for for them to you last week.

You must remember the generosity of God Right for God commended his love toward us and that while you get sinners Christ died for us We told you talked about John 3 16 and how it's the the most powerful 25 words yet the most Promising 25 words and all of Scripture to show you that our God is a generous loving kind and merciful God But outside the generosity of God you got to realize that there's a the depravity of man When you present the gospel you must show them that man is depraved that man is a sinner that man is dead in his sins and Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance You must show them that man is separated from God because the sin Nature that he has he's not a sinner because he sinned.

He's a sinner because he's born in sin Romans 5 12 tells us that and You talk to him about the depravity of man Then you talk to them about what the certainty of judgment judgment is coming and if you don't rectify the fact that you're separated from God, you will be lost for all eternity and therefore The Bible says that Hebrews 9 that it's a putter the man wants to die and after that the judgment You can put the next screen up if you want you so they can follow along a little bit better Thank you.

And So you begin to understand that there there's a certainty of judgment and because judgment is going to come you got to realize that that man needs to be saved from his sin and Hebrews goes on to say that he was have to attend that if we go on sitting willfully in the full knowledge of who the Son of God is that there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, but a terrifying expectation of Judgment and the Lord would say vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord and the judgment leads to the eternality of hell and Hell is eternal eternal like heaven is Eternal the word I only asked you 70 times in the New Testament Speaks of the eternal nature of God that he's an eternal King And not only is he an eternal King because he's the eternal God, but he grants eternal life All the same word and that brings eternal judgment to those who do not know him It's that leads us then to our fifth point and that is the only hope is the Messiah the identity of the Messiah That's that's the that's the fifth thing you need to make sure you don't forget when presenting the gospel the the identity of the Messiah So important John 20 30 and 31 these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that Believing in him you might have life in his name, right?

the Christmas story right Luke chapter 2 For unto you this day has been born in the city of David a Savior. Who's the Savior? Christ the Messiah the Lord That's who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved The identity of the Messiah is crucial And that's why we're trying to help you understand that that this Christmas with with the book the Christ of Christmas 25 different prophecies right that all talk about the coming Messiah how they're fulfilled in Jesus Christ our Lord and Understand that and to explain that to your children to give it to your friends that they might understand that you need to believe that Jesus is the Messiah Turn me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 16 We began here when we started our series by looking at the very first point that the church is the is the plan of the Son Of God But let me take you back to Matthew chapter 16 that you might understand something because you know the story Disciples are up in the northern part of Israel at the base of of Mount Hermon and and Christ asked the question who do men say that I am Well, what's the popular opinion of the Messiah?

Well, some say you're Jeremiah some say you're Elijah some say you're one of the prophets some everybody's saying you're great But nobody's saying you're God so Christ is what who do you say that I am and Peter pipes up and says You are the Christ the Son of the Living God You're the Messiah We recognize you as our Messiah You are the Son you are equal in nature to the Living God. You are God in the flesh see The incarnation the enfleshment of God we realize who you are. We understand your identity You are the Christ the Son of the Living God and Christ would say to Peter listen Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven has revealed this to you and you can imagine what must have been happening with the disciples and You bring it down to modern-day vernacular and Peter saying yeah, I got it, right No, I high-five with John and high-five with Bartholomew and high-five Levi.

Yeah, I got it, right Yeah, we know you're the Christ the Son of the Living God Then Christ says these words very important.

He says this in verse number 20 He warned the disciples They should they should tell no one That he was the Messiah Why hey, wait, wait a minute You just said that when we present the gospel somehow we have to make sure that we don't forget The identity of the Messiah and Jesus just says to his men. Hey, listen, I'm gonna warn you Don't tell anybody that I am the Messiah Well, why not? If you have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah in order to be saved. Why wouldn't you tell them that then? Because they had a misperception of the Messiah they saw the Messiah as a military leader a political leader Who would lead them?

from their enslavement and free them They didn't see the Messiah as a spiritual deliverer Because they didn't need that They were sons of Abraham They were of the right lineage They were the chosen people They didn't need a spiritual deliverance That's why we looked at Luke chapter 4 last week when Christ said that they were they were poor and they were blind and they were Imprisoned and they were oppressed They didn't see themselves that way spiritually physically. Yes, but not spiritually And therefore they were unwilling to repent and to turn from their sin So Christ says to them Listen Don't tell anybody That I'm the Messiah And then he says this From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and Be raised up on the third day Peter took him aside and Began to rebuke him saying God forbid it Lord.

This will never happen to you. Why because you see his perception of Messiah Was askew as well see He didn't see his Messiah as having to suffer and die Although the Old Testament is very very clear on that He didn't see it that way Forbid it Lord But he turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan you are a stumbling block to me for you are not setting your mind on God's interest but man's you don't have in mind the mission of God you have in mind the mission of man Peter you have a man-centered theology.

You don't have a God-centered theology You're focused in on what's good for you not what's good by my standards from my perspective And then he says this He says to his disciples in Mark's account. He says he gathers the crowd around says to everyone If anyone wishes to come after me He must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it For what will a profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his own soul?

Or what will a man give in exchange for a soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in glory of his father and with his angels and will then repay every man according to his deeds Christ is listen Not only am I going to suffer and die But everybody who wishes to be a follower of mine Has to realize that they must deny themselves. They must take up their cross daily and follow me Wow Christ speaks to the necessity of the cross So that leads me to our sixth point That when you present the gospel, you must always remember the centrality of the cross You can't talk about the identity the Messiah without addressing the centrality of the cross And when you address the centrality of the cross, you are first of all looking at the necessity of the cross It is essential that Christ die He must die He must sacrifice for the sins of man And then you go over to Mark's gospel in Mark chapter 9 and it says verse number 30 From there they went out and began to go through Galilee and he did not want anyone to know about it For he was teaching his disciples and telling them the Son of Man is to be delivered Into the hands of men and they will kill him and when he has been killed he will rise three days later So he says not only must you understand the necessity of the cross you must understand the certainty of the cross He is to be Delivered this is going to happen.

Not only must it happen It is going to happen and this is how it's going to happen and then it says this But they did not understand the statement and they were afraid to ask him Why would they be afraid to ask him? Why didn't they understand the statement because they didn't want to understand the statement and They didn't ask him because the Bible tells us why they didn't ask him They came to Capernaum and when he was in the house, he began to question them. What were you discussing on the way?

But they kept silent For on the way they discussed with one another which of them was the greatest That was their discussion We're not gonna talk to Christ about death and dying and denying yourself and take up your cross and following it. Why are we gonna do that? We're arguing about who's the greatest in the kingdom Because that's what we want to be. We want to be the greatest person around Then we go over to Mark chapter 10 verse number 32 Says they were on the road going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking on ahead of them and they were amazed And those who followed were fearful And again, he took the 12 aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him So he's already talked to them about the necessity of the cross He's talked to them about the certainty of the cross and now he's gonna talk to them about the brutality and the cruelty of the cross He says behold We are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered to chief priests and the scribes And they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles.

He will mock him and spit on him and Scourge him and kill him and three days later. He will rise again He talks to them about the brutality of the cross but notice that every time he talks about the cross its necessity It's certainty or its brutality He always talks about what its victory and three days later He will rise again You see they were so taken back by the fact that their Messiah would be killed They couldn't begin to understand the victory of the cross and so you think We're self-centered Look at these guys verse 35 James and John the two sons of Zebedee Came up to Jesus saying teacher.

We want you to do for us. Whatever we ask of you Wow Sounds like us doesn't it Lord do for us whatever we want Now if you read if you read Mark's account, I mean Matthew's account you realize that their mother Came up James and John were were mama's boys Okay, I know they're called the sons of thunder But really their mama's boys and their mom came up and she wanted Jesus to do whatever She wanted him to do because she asked this question Grant that we may sit one on your right and one on your left in your glory That's the question that the mother asked.

I want my boys to have a special place in glory. I Want one on your right hand and one on your left hand after all they're the sons of thunder. These are great young men Lord grant me this request again He just talks about the brutality and the cruelty of his death and all they can think about is glory all they can think about is greatness all they can think about is Themselves they missed the point of the cross the cross is central to the mission of the Messiah Paul would say 1st Corinthians 2 verse number 2.

I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified and then in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 before that verse 23 we preach Christ Crucified the cross is central To the mission and message of the Christ if the cross is not central to your mission and your ministry and your message You have another Christ than the Christ of the scriptures. We're about to partake of the Lord's table It is the only Only thing That Jesus memorialized During his ministry He never memorialized a miracle he never memorialized even one of his messages, although they're the scriptures But what he did memorialize Was the Lord's table this you do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me Never forget this Whatever you do he transformed the last Passover into The first Lord's Supper and from that day forward Christians have been celebrating the Lord's table Why because it's a memorial why why did he?

memorialize this table Not specifically this table, but the Lord's table What why did he memorialize it? Oh That's a great question Did you ask that question? I did it's because he has a memorial name And if he has a memorial name he's gonna Memorialize that which accentuates his name and You know what that memorial name is Because Way back in the book of Exodus Moses asked Who shall I say? sent me Exodus chapter 3 and God said you tell them I am sent you And that phrase I am making up for Hebrew consonants Give us the name of God and Jesus would go on to say in John chapter 8 verse number 24 unless you believe that I am You will die in your sins.

Why? Because I am is the memorial name. Listen to what he says. He says this is my name forever and this is my memorial name to all generations God says I have a memorial name and That memorial name is the fact that I am a savior Redeemer Rescuer Deliverer, that's who I am That's what I do and nobody else can do what I do and So from generation to generation There's a name that you must remember It's my memorial name.

It's to be remembered from generation to generation. You pass it down to your children They might pass it down to their children. Why because they need to know who I am. I Am their Savior. I am their Redeemer I am their rescuer. I am their deliverer. This is his memorial name And so on the eve of the crucifixion Christ memorializes the Lord's table because it symbolizes His deliverance He came to die That was his mission in life He came to die the subsequent resurrection would prove life over death.

That's what he came to do So that's why he memorialized the Lord's table you cannot present the gospel without emphasizing the centrality of the cross and You can't present the gospel without emphasizing the identity of the Messiah Who hung on the cross? Because everything pointed to the Messiah's coming living Dying in rising again So important to understand this But so often we miss it So we need to understand that when presenting the gospel we need to remember the generosity of God What a great God who rules the world?

But the reason man doesn't come to him John 3 is because man loves darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil She had talked about the depravity of man With that comes a certainty of judgment and the eternality of life with God or life without God the only hope the Messiah She must address the identity of the Messiah. Who is he? How do we know who he is? Did he come? If you so when did he come and what did he do? that emphasizes the centrality of the cross And next week We'll talk to you about the reality of the resurrection the primacy of faith the necessity of repentance Because all that is crucial When you present the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord, let me pray with you father we thank you for today The opportunity you give us to spend this brief moment in your word It is so important Lord that The gospel is proclaimed accurately proclaimed biblically You are the greatest evangelist who ever lived You taught us what to say We don't need to change the words You don't need to dumb down the words Don't need to dilute the words We just need to give people the truth of the scriptures Because Lord you're in charge of all things So we ask as we come together celebrate The memorial name of God The Lord you go before us That we might honor you with our lives in Jesus name.

Amen